There appears to have been no political motive for Eugene Terreblanche's
murder, but it has prompted a vigorous debate about the extent to which the
ANC is committed to a multiracial future.

The murder of the white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche, allegedly by two disgruntled employees, has exposed the fragility of the post-apartheid settlement in South Africa. While there appears to have been no political motive for his murder, it has prompted a vigorous debate about the extent to which the governing African National Congress (ANC) is committed to a multiracial future for the republic.

This is largely to do with the timing of the killing. Last month, the leader of the ANC's Youth League, Julius Malema, triggered controversy when he led college students in singing the apartheid-era anthem Ayesaba Amagwala (The Cowards Are Scared) which contains the line "kill the Boer". The ANC insists the song is part of its cultural heritage. But given that the song also refers to farmers as thieves and rapists, and given the fact that 3,000 white farmers have been murdered since the end of apartheid 16 years ago, the potential for conflict is all too apparent.

Jacob Zuma, the South African president, has appealed for calm, as have Mr Terreblanche's supporters in the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB). But AWB members have also said they will decide what action to take "to avenge" their leader's death – though such a threat should be treated with scepticism, coming as it does from a fringe organisation of odious views with very little support in South Africa's minority white community.

Far more pertinent will be the response of the ANC government. Mr Zuma has been criticised for failing to keep Mr Malema and his followers in check. Yet the South African president's own campaign song in the 2007 election was another apartheid anthem, which translates as "Bring Me My Machine Gun". Is he really the man to transform the ANC into a movement that can embrace all South Africans, regardless of colour?